Between the cheesy trailer and a cast that includes Ashanti—I never would have predicted much for Resident Evil: Extinction.  But given the success of ‘three-quels’ this year, I’m not sure why I was surprised.  Extinction nearly doubled the the box office take of it’s nearest competitor (Good Luck Chuck) and had the biggest debut of any Resident Evil installment.

But the real winner this weekend may be Sean Penn’s Into the Wild.  The film, based on the Jon Krakauer novel, earned over $51,000 per screen—one of the best averages ever for a movie in limited release.  Given the full-hour coverage on Oprah last week, Wild will probably be able to build on its impressive debut.  (The film goes nationwide on October 5th.)

Eastern Promises also turned out some promising numbers after its wide release.  The film took in nearly $6 million in its second week (though it still underperformed the last David Cronenberg/Viggo Mortensen movie, A History of Violence).  I’m hoping word-of-mouth about the fully-naked Mortensen fight scene (did I grab your attention?) will give this film the lasting power it deserves.

1. Resident Evil: Extinction, Sony, $23,678,580
2. Good Luck Chuck, Lionsgate, $13,652,001
3. The Brave One, Warner Bros., $13,652,001
4. 3:10 to Yuma, Lionsgate, $6,157,624
5. Eastern Promises, Focus Features, $5,641,788
6. Sydney White, Universal, $5,196,380
7. Mr. Woodcock, New Line, $4,923,896
8. Superbad, Sony, $3,110,322
9. The Bourne Ultimatum, Universal, $2,872,565
10. Dragon Wars, Freestyle Releasing, $2,596,278